Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 20/2018 (International issue no. 5):78-97 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2018.009

Etymology and Meaning of προαίρεσις in Aristotle's Ethics

Maciej Smolak
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Ethics, Jagiellonian University

In NE III.2 1112a13 Aristotle raises the following question: "What is προαίρεσις?". But προαίρεσις has different meanings and it is practically untranslatable into modern languages, as are most crucial terms of classical Greek. In this article, the author attempts to explain what προαίρεσις is for Aristotle. The author first presents the etymology of the term προαίρεσις based upon Aristotle's remarks in his ethical treatises and shows that the term does not reflect what προαίρεσις is for him. Second, the author outlines characteristics of the uncontrolled person and indicates, on this ground, what Aristotle's προαίρεσις is not. Finally, the author points out that προαίρεσις in the full sense involves two elements - the orectical-deliberative element and the decisional-functional element - and sketches out their features.

Published: September 30, 2018  Show citation

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Smolak, M. (2018). Etymology and Meaning of προαίρεσις in Aristotle's Ethics. Aither, 10(20), 78-97. doi: 10.5507/aither.2018.009
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